X Close

LCCOS staff news

Home

News for colleagues within the LCCOS department.

Menu

Archive for the 'Staff, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' Category

Nominate a colleague or team for a UCL Education Award

By Angela Young, on 5 February 2024

Do you know a colleague or team within LCCOS that makes an outstanding contribution to support students’ learning? Consider nominating them for this year’s UCL Provost Education Awards.

The UCL Provost Education Awards recognise and celebrate the achievements of staff and how they have enabled excellent practice or facilitated innovation in teaching and learning. Several LCCOS colleagues had success in last year’s awards (See LCCOS colleagues win UCL Education Awards).

How do nominations work?

Any staff member can make a nomination and submit it first for consideration within their Faculty or Vice-Provost’s Office. Each Faculty or VP Office can then put forward up to a total of 8 nominations for the awards, with a maximum of 6 individual and 6 team nominations.

There are new award categories this year, to align with UCL’s ambitions for Education Excellence:

  • Innovating
  • Enhancing belonging
  • Improving the student experience
  • Celebrating education
  • Impactful partnerships

We are now inviting nominations from across LCCOS. To nominate a colleague or team, please download and complete the nomination form (Word document) on the UCL Education Awards webpage and send by email to Angela Young.

The deadline for submission of nominations to LCCOS is midday on Wednesday 20 March 2024, to allow time for consideration on submission by the Pro-Vice-Provost (LCCOS), and in turn by the Office of the UCL Vice-Provost (Faculties), for the overall deadline of Tuesday 9 April.

Why nominate a colleague or team?

This is your chance to ensure your colleague or an LCCOS team gets the acknowledgement they deserve, so they can be rewarded and celebrate in their achievements whilst highlighting to the wider UCL community the impact that LCCOS staff have on the experience and success of our students. Nominations can be from any colleague, not just from managers, so take the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate your peers, or more junior or senior members of staff, either as an individuals or as a team, from your own team or beyond.

Congratulations to a new LCCOS HEA Fellow

By Angela Young, on 29 January 2024

Jo BainesMany congratulations to Jo Baines (Academic Liaison Librarian / Archivist – Special Collections) who has achieved the award of HEA Fellow, through UCL Arena Fellowship, which is testament to Jo’s commitment to professionalism in supporting learning and teaching in higher education.

Why apply for HEA fellowship?

HEA fellowship is a nationally recognised award and can be great evidence for your CV or when applying for jobs. In addition to gaining post-nominals, the process of applying for fellowship means you reflect on your teaching and work to support learning and develop your skills, identify areas for your future development and enhance your support of students so contributing to the user experience. There are various categories of fellowship depending on your role and experience, including Associate Fellow, Fellow and Senior Fellow, so it’s relevant to all sorts of roles across LCCOS. UCL Arena Fellowship provides an accredited route to HEA Fellowship and is free for UCL staff. Why not make working towards HEA Fellowship a development goal in your appraisal this year?

LCCOS support for HEA fellowship

Did you know that there are monthly peer-support meets for colleagues in LCCOS who are interested in applying for HEA fellowship? Jo found the meets invaluable for providing encouragement and support, as well as motivating her to get on with her application and get it submitted. Jo will return to a meet soon to share her experiences and what worked for her.

We also have an LCCOS Teams site for sharing friendly tips, asking questions and providing peer support and motivation for getting started and getting on.

How can I find out more?

The UCL Arena Fellowship website and Moodle course are great places to get started with finding out more, or attend a UCL Arena Fellowship initial guidance session. To join an LCCOS HEA Fellowship support meet, or be added to the Teams site, please contact Angela Young.

LILAC conference 2024 – express your interest in attending

By Angela Young, on 5 December 2023

Deadline for expressing interest – 5pm Tuesday 19 December.

LILAC 2024 will be held at Leeds Beckett University from Monday 25 – Wednesday 27 March 2024. LILAC is a hugely inspiring and motivational conference, focusing on information literacy in libraries, and is relevant to anyone involved in teaching library skills or with an interest in information literacy. It comprises 3 days packed with seminars, workshops and lectures, a networking evening and conference dinner.

If you are interested in attending LILAC 2024, please complete the LILAC conference request form by 5pm on Tuesday 19 December and ask your manager to give consent by completing the manager’s consent form by the same date.

As the conference is costly, places for UCL LCCOS staff to attend are limited. The decision on who may attend will be made by the Staff Training and Development Oversight Group.

Eligibility for UCL LCCOS staff:

  • Priority will to be given to LCCOS staff who have never attended LILAC before or who have had an abstract accepted.
  • Applicants must have completed their probationary period at the time of application.
  • All attendees will be expected to contribute to ‘Lessons in LILAC’, a training and development activity to cascade training to colleagues as part of the eXperience eXchange – Library Skills in May 2024, an online staff training and development event for LCCOS staff involved in training and liaison activities.
  • Applicants must have line manager approval.

Please contact Angela Young with any questions.

Professional Registration Questionnaire for LCCOS

By Craig Martin, on 28 November 2023

Aside from obtaining a formal qualification (e.g. Masters / diploma / apprenticeships), there are several options available to LCCOS colleagues who wish to advance their professional knowledge, experience and skills. This can provide evidence for your expertise and commitment to professional development in the sector through attainment of a professional qualification. This survey will give us an understanding of the current status and future aspirations of LCCOS colleagues in relation to these qualifications, which will inform how we can best support staff who would like to work towards them.

To get a full picture, we kindly request all within LCCOS complete the survey by 12th January 2024.

All responses will be treated in confidence.

Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Many thanks

Craig Martin, Subject Liaison Librarian
Angela Young, Head of Library Skills

 

 

UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School 2023 – bookings now open

By Angela Young, on 26 May 2023

The UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School (formerly UCL Library Services Staff Summer School) is a series of training and development sessions, events and online activities aimed at staff from across UCL LCCOS, to support their ability to answer enquiries and to provide support, training and advocacy to users and stakeholders. Sessions are generally delivered by colleagues, so we can share our expertise.

The programme this year has a variety of sessions, running throughout June and July:

For full details of the programme and to book your place(s), see the UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School calendar. Presentations, accompanying links and materials and recordings (where applicable) will be made available on the UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School Moodle Course. If you do not already have access, please get the enrolment key. Sessions are open to all UCL Library Services staff, with approval from your line manager.

UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School 2023 – help shape it!

By Angela Young, on 3 May 2023

We are now putting together the programme for the UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School 2023 (formerly UCL Library Services Staff Summer School) and are reaching out to colleagues to help shape it.
If you haven’t engaged with our Summer School before, it is a series of training and professional development events open to all LCCOS staff but particularly aimed at staff who engage directly with our users to provide training and support, to help develop their knowledge and skills so that they are better able to undertake these activities. Sessions are usually delivered by colleagues, sharing the knowledge and expertise we have across LCCOS, and some may be aimed at staff supporting particular disciplines.

The Summer School takes place during June and July, with a mixture of live online events that will be recorded, and face to face events.

Recordings and materials from previous years of the Summer School are available on the UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School Moodle course.

Please help shape this year’s Summer School by completing our suggestion form by 17 May 2023. You can also use the suggestion form to request the enrolment key for the Moodle course, if you don’t already have access.

eXperience eXchange 2023 – bookings now open

By Angela Young, on 30 March 2023

Bookings are now open for the 2023 LCCOS eXperience eXchange, which will take place online on MS Teams on Thursday 25 May 10.00 – 12.00.

eXperience eXchange – what happens?

experience exchange logoLCCOS colleagues come together to share ideas and good practice about teaching or training design and delivery, academic engagement and support activities through short presentations or other activities.

How does it work?

Colleagues from across LCCOS are invited to give short presentations or teaching activities (5-20 mins) to exchange their experiences an any aspect of their work relating to teaching or training design and delivery, academic engagement or other support activities. This may include feedback from events or training you’ve attended, something new you’ve tried in your work, an idea you might have and would value some peer input, or simply giving colleagues an insight into your role and activities.

The event this year will also include Lessons from LILAC, a report by colleagues who are attending this year’s LILAC: The information literacy conference.

Why get involved?

There are many benefits to being part of the eXperience eXchange, including:

  • bringing colleagues together to give everyone a better understanding of activities happening across LCCOS.
  • benefiting colleagues who may be inspired by your experiences to inform their work.
  • an opportunity to get input and feedback from colleagues to help you develop your ideas.
  • a development opportunity which can provide evidence for an application for HEA fellowship or on job applications, giving opportunity to give a presentation or deliver a short teaching activity in a safe space with a friendly audience, and for sharing best practice with colleagues.
  • an opportunity to try out new teaching activities or tools, including tools for presenting online, such as polls, breakout rooms and whiteboard features.
  • an opportunity to gain inspiration from the work of your peers.

What is the format of the presentations?

This year we invite contributions in one of three formats:

  • A short presentation (5-10 mins)
  • PechaKucha (20 slides of 20 seconds each)
  • A longer presentation or activity (15-20 mins – allows time for more in depth presentations or opportunity for interactivity and input from colleagues).

If you’d rather not present, you can attend as an attendee only, but remember that the event depends on contributions.

How do I sign up?

Simply complete the registration form. We will send you the link to join and liaise with you over your contribution.

LCCOS all-staff Sustainability event

By Benjamin Meunier, on 23 March 2023

Earlier in Term 2, a number of colleagues from across Library, Culture, Collections and Open Science gathered to explore sustainability in the department. I wanted to share the video from the event, which has been niftily organised into chapters by Meghan Flight in the LCCOS Comms (I hasten to add that the video has been available for some time, but I have been tardy in putting together this short write-up!).

The session opened with a presentation from Max Vidotto (Sustainable UCL Business Partner for LCCOS), followed by talks from Sarah Lawson (Queen Square Library) on sustainable action from a site library point of view, and Collette Lawrence (LCCOS Facilities & Projects) on the LCCOS Sustainability Reference Guide. I thoroughly enjoyed the interesting presentations and the engaged interactive parts of the meeting, which I compered as chair of the Sustainability Committee with support from Meghan and Rowena on the Q&A session. What came across in the event was that there is a significant interest in sustainability and a lot of creative ideas from colleagues on how we can make LCCOS even more environmentally responsible. I hope that this will be the first of a series of events, which might become an annual occurrence.

As I have written about previously (in 2022, 2021, 2020, – you get the idea!), I am very proud of our achievements in the sustainability arena over the years. We are one of the best performing departments in UCL and I would argue one of the most active academic library services in the UK when it comes to sustainability. It has been an absolute privilege coordinating some of the work, and mostly keeping abreast of the committed efforts of Green Champions across the department. Within LCCOS, colleagues in the museums and the Theatre are initiating Green Impact in new areas, and I am sure there will be more good practice developing over the coming months and years.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Michelle Wake for agreeing to take the Chair of the LCCOS Sustainability Committee, with effect from my departure from UCL (tomorrow).

All the best in your endeavours to make LCCOS a beacon for sustainable libraries!

UCL East: Marshgate handover

By Benjamin Meunier, on 22 March 2023

After a rather wet start to the day, the skies brightened up over the Olympic Park last Friday afternoon, just in time for the handover ceremony where building contractors Mace handed over the keys to UCL East’s latest addition – Marshgate.

View of Marshgate building. The edge of the London Stadium is visible in the right-hand corner, dwarfed by the cube-shaped Marshgate.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the occasion, which was described officially in the UCL News, where the significance of the milestone is described. I am taking this opportunity to share my reflections on the building and amateurish photos of the library and learning spaces…

Firstly, it is monumental – as described in the press release – “the biggest structure on any of UCL’s campuses, measuring six times the size of the UCL Student Centre”. It is very much a statement, right next to the London Stadium, placing UCL at the heart of East Bank – the cultural district that is intended as the 2012 Olympics’ legacy.

But size isn’t everything, of course. I was wowed by the grandeur of the atrium space, which even unfurnished and empty of students and staff, had a warmth and sense of conviviality you would not expect from an exposed concrete building. The main foyer will host public art exhibitions, to welcome and provoke visitors to the campus.

View up into the atrium, looking towards glazed roof

(more…)

Nominate an exceptional colleague or team for a UCL Education Award

By Angela Young, on 17 February 2023

Do you know a colleague or team within LCCOS that makes an outstanding contribution to the learning experience and success of our students? Then take a moment to nominate them for this year’s UCL Education Awards.

The UCL Education Awards recognise and celebrate the achievements of staff and their contributions to our learning community, with a focus on the work of colleagues that is less visible to students – work that has enabled excellent practice or facilitated innovation in teaching and learning.

How do nominations work?

Nominations are made within a department and then submitted for consideration at Faculty or Vice-Provosts’ and Vice-Presidents’ Office. Each Faculty or equivalent, e.g. RIGE, may submit up to 8 nominations, with a maximum of 6 individual and 6 team nominations.

Nominations will be judged on sustainability of impact beyond the work carried out, evidence of impact on creating an inclusive student experience and benefit to UCL student learning and support, with the panel being particularly interested in examples demonstrating excellence across UCL. Nominations should be made within one of the following categories:

  • Assessment & Feedback
  • Openness & Inclusion
  • Digitally Enriched Learning
  • Postgraduate Teaching Assistants
  • Student partnerships
  • Student Support
  • Supporting Students’ employability
  • Sustainability

We are now inviting nominations from across LCCOS. To nominate a colleague or team, please download and complete the nomination form (Word document) on the UCL Education Awards webpage and send by email to Angela Young.

The deadline for submission of nominations to LCCOS is midday on Friday 3 March to allow time for consideration on submission by the Pro-Vice-Provost (LCCOS), and in turn by RIGE, for the overall deadline of Friday 17 March.

Why nominate a colleague or team?

This is your chance to ensure your colleague or an LCCOS team gets the acknowledgement they deserve, so they can be rewarded and celebrate in their achievements whilst highlighting to the wider UCL community the impact that LCCOS staff have on the experience and success of our students.